This thesis aims to study how much of price appreciations on the Swedish real-estate market in recent times have been fundamentally warranted, as well as if the unconventional monetary policies implemented by the Swedish central bank have had any interaction with these price escalations. The methodology employed to research this is divided into two parts. Firstly, a bubble component time series has been computed using a Kalman filtering technique in a state-space model in which the bubble is inferred from a fundamental equation. The next step involves studying the dynamics between the bubble element vis-a-vis the quantitative easing policies implemented by Riksbanken. This procedure involves estimating vector autoregressive models in which several policy variables are included in the nexus and analyzed simultaneously to better grasp how QE transmits and impacts the component for the bubble. The empirical results from the first segment designate that price inflation on the Swedish housing market has become more and more principally unjustifiable throughout the sample. However, no significant inference may be made in this stage as to whether or not the market is influenced by a speculative bubble. In the dynamic system, some, yet thin evidence is found of quantitative easing policies preceding the evolvement of exuberance in house prices. Conclusively, this thesis affirms most of the growth in the non-fundamental part of prices to an expansion of credit, which in turn cannot be accredited to the policies of the Swedish Riksbank. Only a slight expectational effect is found and therefore we conclude that quantitative easing only has a trivial impact on the development of a speculative bubble in the market for real-estate.

[pt] Este estudo define um modelo de dois países que seguem a estrutura exposta em Gertler-Karadi (2011) e formam uma união monetária. Estudamos o impacto de fricções financeiras e os efeitos de políticas monetárias não convencionais implementadas com escopo individual e geral nos países membros desta união. Mostramos que, se os parâmetros usados para limitar o balanço das instituições financeiras forem calibrados para permitir uma alavancagem mais alta, o maior acesso a capital leva a um produto que é, ao mesmo tempo, mais alto no steady state e mais frágil a choques de qualidade de capital. Também mostramos que níveis elevados de Home Bias levam a menos compartilhamento de riscos e a uma disseminação menor de choques idiosincráticos. Por fim, esse estudo também mostra que políticas monetárias não convencionais com escopo individual podem aumentar o bem-estar consideravelmente quando o Home Bias no sistema financeiro é elevado. / [en] This study lays-out a model with two countries that follow the DSGE framework with financial intermediaries set by Gertler-Karadi (2011) and form a monetary union. We study the impact of financial frictions and the effects of union-wide and country-specific unconventional monetary policies in the union s member countries. We show that, if the parameters used to limit balance sheet size are calibrated in a way to allow for higher leverage in the banking system, the easier access to capital leads to an Output level that is, at the same time, higher in the Steady State and more fragile to Capital Quality Shocks. It s also shown that high levels of home-bias lead to lower risk-sharing and lower dissemination of idiosyncratic shocks, which helps explaining why idiosyncratic shocks may cause highly persistent effects in the member countries. Finally, this study also shows that country-specific unconventional monetary policies can be considerably welfare increasing when home-bias in the financial system is high.

In this thesis, I study the transmission of monetary policy through the term structure of interest rates. This is an important topic because, with short-term nominal interest rates in many advanced economies close to their effective lower bound since 2008-2009, central banks have used `unconventional' monetary policies, such as large-scale asset purchases and forward guidance, to stimulate macroeconomic activity by, inter alia, placing downward pressure on longer-term interest rates. I focus on the mechanisms through which monetary policy influences bond yields, domestically and globally, with reference to a canonical decomposition of longer-term interest rates into expectations of future short-term interest rates, and term premia. After an introduction in chapter 1, chapter 2 appraises the use of overnight indexed swap (OIS) rates as measures of expected future monetary policy. Unlike federal funds futures (FFFs), which have regularly been used to construct measures of US interest rate expectations, OIS rates are available in many countries. I find that US OIS rates provide measures of interest rate expectations that are as good as those from FFFs, and that US, UK, Eurozone and Japanese OIS rates up to a 2-year horizon tend to accurately measure interest rate expectations, providing comparable cross-country measures of monetary policy expectations. In chapter 3, I propose a novel method for estimating interest rate expectations and term premia at short and long-term horizons: a no-arbitrage Gaussian affine dynamic term structure model (GADTSM) augmented with OIS rates. Using 3 to 24-month OIS rates, the OIS-augmented model generates estimates of the expected path of short-term interest rates out to a 10-year horizon that closely correspond to those implied by FFFs rates and survey expectations, outperforming existing GADTSMs. I study the transmission of US unconventional monetary policies in chapter 4. Using the OIS-augmented GADTSM, I carry out an event study to demonstrate that US unconventional monetary policy announcements between November 2008 and April 2013 did significantly reduce US longer-term interest rates by affecting expectations and term premia. As a result of these declines, unconventional monetary policies aided US real economic outcomes. Using a structural vector autoregression, I show that changes in interest rate expectations, linked to monetary policy signalling, had more expansionary effects on US real economic outcomes than changes in term premia, associated with portfolio rebalancing. Chapter 5 assesses the international transmission of monetary policy through the term structure of interest rates between advanced economies. I present a micro-founded, two-country model with endogenous portfolio choice amongst country-specific short and long-term bonds, and equity. Within the model, US monetary policy has sizeable effects on longer-term interest rates in other advanced economies, which are similar to empirical estimates. Using the OIS-augmented GADTSM in an event study, I show that US monetary policy has led to changes in interest rate expectations in other advanced economies that amplify global spillovers, which have been partly mitigated by changes in term premia through portfolio rebalancing.

La crise financière mondiale qui a débuté en 2008, et la crise des dettes souveraines en zone euro qui l'a suivie, ont successivement forcé les macroéconomistes à repenser leur cadre conceptuel. Cette thèse est une modeste contribution aux efforts colossaux déployés par les macroéconomistes à travers le monde pour faire face à ce défi: renforcer la compréhension de l'utilisation optimale des outils de politique économique non conventionnels. A cette fin, elle est construite en deux parties. Chaque partie vise à explorer au plan théorique un "contexte macroéconomique-type" au sein duquel des outils de politique économique non conventionnels ont été employés ces dernières années. La première partie, intitulée "Politique Non Conventionelle Optimale en Economie Ouverte", analyse l'utilisation optimale d'instruments de politique économique non conventionels par une banque centrale en économie ouverte. En présence de frictions financières qui modifient la manière dont la politique monétaire affecte l'économie, ou en présence de chocs exogènes qui mettent en défaut la "divine coïncidence", cette partie décrit comment un banquier central devrait combiner un instrument de politique monétaire non conventionnelle et la politique monétaire conventionnelle à des fins de stabilisation macroéconomique. La seconde partie, "Politique Budgétaire Optimale en Union Monétaire", adopte le point de vue du gouvernement d'un pays situé en union monétaire (typiquement la zone euro). Un tel pays ne disposant d'une politique monétaire autonome (au plan national), cette partie étudie la possibilité pour un tel pays d'utiliser la politique budgétaire comme un outil de stabilisation, et décrit l'utilisation optimale des dévaluations fiscales en réponse à des chocs exogènes idiosyncratiques. / The 2008 global financial crisis and the subsequent euro area sovereign debt crisis successively forced macroeconomists to reassess this conceptual framework. This thesis is a modest contribution to the huge efforts undertaken by macroeconomists following the crisis to meet this challenge, i.e. to develop some insights about the optimal use of unconventional policy tools. To do so, this thesis is twofold. Each part intends to explore from a theoretical perspective a fundamental macroeconomic situation that called for the use of unconventional policy instruments in the recent years. The first part, ”Optimal Unconventional Policy in An Open Economy” analyzes the optimal use of unconventional policy instruments by the central bank in an open economy framework. Assuming that the presence of financial frictions changes the way monetary policy affects the economy, or that the occurence of exogenous shocks breaks the ”divine coincidence”, this part describes how a central bank should combine an unconventional policy instrument and conventional monetary policy to favor macroeconomic stabilization. The second part, ”Optimal Fiscal Policy in a Currency Union”, takes the standpoint of the governement of a country located in a currency union (typically the euro area). Such a country being deprived of monetary policy autonomy, this part considers the opportunity of using fiscal policy as a stabilization tool, and describes the optimal use of fiscal devaluations following idiosyncratic exogenous shocks.

The past decade has offered up some fintech innovations that are gradually reshaping the financial sector. Phasing out of paper currencies together with the populatization of the private digital currencies has propelled central banks to consider issuance of their digital currencies – so called Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). In particular, the Central Bank of Sweden has started its e-krona project in 2017. Despite the rising interest in the study of CBDC among the academic, as well as tech and policy practitioners’ communities all over the world, the research of the CBDC remains fragmented and limited. Therefore, this thesis aims to study the impact of CBDC on the conduct of monetary policy and for the preservation of financial and monetary stability that is an important, but underresearched topic. As such, the purpose of this research is to explore how the Central Bank of Sweden plans to use CBDC for addressing the central banks’ main objectives of monetary and financial stability. To reach this purpose, an exploratory qualitative case study has been conducted. The results are based on six semi-structured interviews conducted with the practitioners from the Central Bank of Sweden, Finansinspektionen, Swedish Bankers’ Association, and the Swedish House of Finance. The results of this study show that the Central Bank of Sweden has started studying the possibilities and implications of CBDC in the spring of 2017. The analysis focusses on the need of CBDC for Sweden, as well as the possibilities it opens up and implications it entails for the financial system. At the moment of the conduction of this study, the Central Bank of Sweden has been working on solving two next challenges – examining legal issues and existing technology. As such, a pilot project to test the e-krona concept for the general public and diverse security challenges has been planned for 2020-2021. Next, this study has also investigated the possible impact of the introduction of CBDC on the conduction of monetary policy and preservation of monetary and financial stability. First, this study has shown that the impact of the introduction of CBDC on quantitative easing would depend on the design of the CBDC. As such, if CBDC would be interest-bearing, it would have no impact on quantitative easing. If CBDC would, however, have no interest rate, the effectiveness of quantitative easing would be put in jeopardy. As such, a zero interest rate on CBDC would be a lower bound for policy rate and would make setting a negative policy rate impossible. Some economists argue that introducing CBDC would be a replacement for quantitative easing. The introduction of interest-bearing CBDC, however, would ease the setting of a negative policy rate and might enhance the operation of monetary policy. However, this research has shown that introduction of CBDC with a negative interest rate is unlikely. Second, this study has concluded that the necessity and the effectiveness of the helicopter money concept are widely questioned by scholars and practitioners. It is agreed that introducing CBDC would help to distribute the helicopter money, but the concept itself is often inapplicable. Thus, this research has concluded that helicopter money remains just an idea that is vastly supported by scholars and is a no-go policy for practitioners. Third, the study has also shown that CBDC’s impact on the transmission mechanism is still not clear. As such, scholars argue that CBDC would have a big impact on interest rate channel, as it will increase a pass-through to the to lending rates, as well as on the assets’ channel, as CBDC might become an alternative to bank deposits if it offers a higher interest rate. Practitioners agree that the introduction of interest-bearing CBDC would strengthen the transmission mechanism of the interest rate channel and would lead to the direct and almost instant correlation between the policy rate and the CBDC account interest rate. Some practitioners, however, believe that under the condition of the positive policy rate the transmission mechanisms would not be affected other than marginally. Lastly, an interest-bearing CBDC is considered to be dangerous for financial stability in the scholarly research. It is expected to compete with bank deposits and lead to bank runs, which would result in the drain of the funding from the banking system. Some practitioners agree with these conclusions, however, the majority disagrees and perceives CBDC to be an asset to diversify the savings portfolio, which would potentially bring more deposits to commercial banks and extend the banking system. It is agreed that CBDC would entail risks for financial stability if people lose trust in the whole banking sector and move all of their assets to the Central Bank accounts. However, if the Central Bank puts these assets back into the financial system, CBDC would not entail any risks. / Under det senaste decenniet har nya högteknologiska innovationer skapats som gradvist har förändrat den finansiella sektorn i grunden. Utfasning av pappersvalutor i kombination med populariseringen av privata digitala valutor har drivit och inspirerat centralbanker att skapa egna digitala valutor, så kallade CBDC (central bank digital currency). 2017 startade den svenska centralbanken, Sveriges riksbank, sitt e-krona projekt. Trots ökat intresset för studier av digital centralbanksvaluta, både bland akademiker men även inom experter och poltitiker över hela världen, saknas mycket forskning. Denna uppsats kommer att studera effekterna av digital centralbanksvaluta på penningpolitiken i relation till det finansiella och monetära systemets stabilitet. Syftet är att undersöka hur Sveriges riksbank planerar att använda en digital centralbanksvaluta för att vidare kunna uppfylla sitt primära syfte, som är att stabilisera ekonomin. För att uppnå detta, har en kvalitativ studie genomförts. Resultaten är baserade på sex stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer med anställda i olika beslutsfattande positioner inom Riksbanken, Finansinspektionen, Svenska Bankföreningen och Finanshuset. Resultaten av denna studie visar att Riksbanken har börjat undersöka möjligheterna och långvariga implikationerna av en digital centralbanksvaluta. För tillfället arbetar man med två utmaningar: att undersöka det juridiska ramverket samt tillgänglig teknologi. Pilottesterna av e-krona har påbörjats 2020, ytterligare tester har planerats för 2020 - 2021. Ytterligare har denna studie undersökt införandet av digital centralbanksvaluta möjliga effekter på penningpolitiken och långsiktig finansiell stabilitet. Inverkan av en digital centralbanksvaluta på den kvantitativa lättnaden skulle variera beroende på utformningen av den digitala valutan. Om den digitala valutan skulle vara räntebärande så skulle den inte ha någon effekt på den kvantitativa lättnaden, däremot om den var det skulle detta kunna påverka Riksbankens möjligeter att köpa statsobligationer. Det finns också diskussion hurvida man kan använda en digital centralbanksvaluta för att underlätta genomförandet av negativ styrränta. Dessutom visar denna studie också att nödvändighet och positiva effekter av så kallade helikopterpengar är starkt ifrågasatt, även om en digital centralbanksvaluta skulle kunna användas för att distribuera sådana monetära medel. Denna studie visar även att det är oklart om digital centralbanksvaluta skulle ha en effekt på den penningspolitiska transmissionsmekanismen. Många är dock övertygade att det skulle ha effekt på räntekanalen då det skulle öka genomströmningen mellan styrräntan och räntan på CBDC-kontot. Slutligen skulle en räntebärande digital centralbanksvaluta kunna vara farlig för finansiell stabilitet, då det kan stimulera snabba variationer i värde och sätta igång stora uttag från bankkonton. Dock, är detta farlig bara om människor tappar förtroende för hela banksektorn. Om inte är fallet, medför digital centralbanksvaluta inga risker och skulle kunna istället ses som en finansiell tillgång och öka insättningar på privata banker.

The recent economic and financial turmoil has led central banks around the world to heavily utilize unconventional monetary policy measures. Unconventional in this sense means a deflection from traditional central bank policy measures, i.e. interest rate innovations. Although these measures were widely discussed, the uniformed, coherent and comprehensive framework of such measures is still missing. The aim of this thesis is to establish the framework for possible classification of such policies together with transmission channels to the real economy. The empirical part examines the impacts of unconventional policies on real data using vector autoregression and vector error correction models. This analysis is based on monthly data period between 1999 and 2013, which is strongly affected by implementation of the unconventional policies in its second half. The last section examines the possible future of these policies as a normal instrument of central banks and describes their main challenges and shortcomings. JEL classification: C32, E40, E44, E50, E52, E58, E60 Keywords: Unconventional monetary policy, Interest rate, Decoupling principle, Balance sheet policy stratification, Quantitative easing, Channels of transmission, Vector Autoregression, Vector error correction model Author's e-mail:...

Cette thèse constitue une analyse historique évolutionniste de la fonction de prêteur en dernier ressort à travers les mutations du cadre institutionnel et opérationnel des Banques Centrales. L’enjeu de ce travail de recherche est de se pencher sur les origines de l’apparition de cette théorie d'un point de vue historique comme outil d’analyse des problématiques de gestion des crises modernes. Il convient de démontrer que le dévoiement de la doctrine du PDR entraîne une incompatibilité avec le cadre institutionnel de la politique monétaire de la Banque Centrale. Ainsi, les interventions « non conventionnelles » des Banques Centrales confirment qu’il est nécessaire de sortir du cadre institutionnel censé assurer une gestion efficiente de la politique monétaire. Par conséquent, ce cadre institutionnel qui garantit notamment l’indépendance de la Banque Centrale parait inadéquat à la nouvelle pratique du prêteur en dernier ressort. L’étude historique de cette fonction permet de mettre en perspective l’évolution du rôle de prêteur en dernier ressort en tant qu’outil de prédation monétaire pour les gouvernements. En définitive, les évolutions divergentes du cadre institutionnel et opérationnel de la Banque Centrale constituent l’un des principaux signes d’une déliquescence du système bancaire centralisé (Central Banking). L’exercice de la fonction de prêteur en dernier ressort par la BCE au sein de la zone euro représente un cadre d’analyse pertinent afin d’étudier les difficultés de cette fonction dans la gouvernance d'une zone économique hétérogène et politiquement inaboutie. / This paper offers an historical analysis of the evolution of lenders of last resort (LOLR) through the institutional and operational mutations of Central Banks framework. The aim of this research is to examine the origins of the appearance of this theory from a historical perspective. It should demonstrate that the perversion of the doctrine of LOLR causes incompatibility with the institutional framework of the Central Bank’s monetary policy. Thus, the "unconventional" interventions of central banks confirm the need to exit the institutional framework meant to ensure the efficient management of monetary policy. Therefore, this institutional framework which guarantees the independence of the Central Bank seems inadequate in the context of the new practice of the lender of last resort. Ultimately, diverging trends of the institutional and operational framework of the Central Bank is a major sign of demise of Central Banking. Last resort lending by the ECB in the euro zone provides a useful analytical framework to study the difficulties of the function of LOLR in the governance of a heterogeneous and politically unfulfilled economic zone.

Gegenstand dieser Dissertation ist die Rolle von Finanzmarktfriktionen für internationale Konjunkturzyklen und daraus resultierende Politikimplikationen. Die Analysen basieren auf Zwei-Länder DSGE Modellen mit international agierenden Finanzintermediären. Im ersten Aufsatz wird untersucht, ob der Anteil ausländischer Kapitalanlagen am Bankvermögen eine Rolle für die Übertragung von Schocks zwischen Ländern spielt. Es kann gezeigt werden, das dies von der Art des jeweiligen Schocks abhängt: Ein höherer Anteil ausländischer Kapitalanlagen führt nur dann zu einer höheren Synchronisierung von Konjunkturzyklen wenn letztere durch sogenannte Capital-Quality-Schocks verursacht werden. Im zweiten Aufsatz untersuche ich, ob es wohlfahrtssteigernd ist, unkonventionelle Geldpolitik zur Stabilisierung länderspezifischer Schocks in einer strukturell symmetrischen Währungsunion mit Finanzmarktfriktionen zu verwenden. Es wird gezeigt, das dies nicht immer der Fall ist: Wenn die Politikregeln auf Indikatoren beruhen, die hochkorreliert zwischen den Ländern sind, führen unionsweite Regeln zu höherer Wohlfahrt als länderspezifische. Der dritte Aufsatz liefert eine Erklärung für relativ geringe internationale Risikoteilung, verglichen mit dem was übliche Modelle, basierend auf dem hohen Grad an Finanzmarktintegration, vorhersagen: Ein internationales Portfolio, was von Finanzintermediären anstelle von Haushalten gewählt wurde, führt im gegebenen Modell zu suboptimaler Risikoteilung. / This thesis examines the role of financial frictions for international business cycles and policymaking in open economies. The analyses are based on two-country DSGE models with leverage-constrained financial intermediaries who can extend credit to home and foreign firms. In the first essay, I assess the role of banks’ balance sheet exposure to foreign assets for the cross-country transmission of shocks. It is shown that this role depends on the nature of a particular shock. Balance sheet exposure is essential for global co-movement in the case of capital quality shocks but does not play a decisive role conditional on other types of shocks. In the second essay, I analyze whether it is desirable to use unconventional monetary policy to stabilize country-specific shocks in a monetary union with financial frictions. It is shown that country-specific rules are not necessarily associated with higher welfare from the viewpoint of a structurally symmetric union. In particular, when the indicators of the rules are highly correlated, union-wide rules are preferable. In the third essay, I provide an explanation for the well-known puzzle that international consumption risk-sharing is relatively low compared to what theoretical models would predict given the high level of international financial-market integration. In particular, it is shown that a portfolio chosen by financial intermediaries instead of households does not necessarily yield the highest possible degree of international consumption risk-sharing.

The thesis deals with relation between central bank independence and accountability. The relation is examined on example of quantitative easing implemented in the period 2005 - 2016 by the European central bank and the Federal Reserve System. From the theoretical and practical point of view the thesis proves that the relation between central bank independence and accountability are influenced by the specification of targets of monetary policy to a great extent. The thesis also proves that the specific definition of both central bank independence and accountability influenced the characteristics of quantitative resp. credit easing. Moreover, such monetary policy can potentially endanger the independence of both central banks in many ways. Thus, the implementation of quantitative easing itself and its potential consequences evidences that the contemporary conception of central bank independence and accountability is insufficient and needs to be reviewed.

The introduction of negative interest rates, as an additional tool of unconventional monetary policy in recent years, leads to many, yet largely polarized debates about the implications of the unconventional monetary policy of central banks. The main reason for their introduction in some economies, namely the threat of deflation, is also questioned, as well as the negative side effects of this instrument on financial stability and economic growth, and finally, their limited scope is under scrutiny. Due to the still insufficient research in this field, the aim of the diploma thesis is to evaluate the concerns and the main long-term risks and impacts of the monetary policy using negative interest rates in the context of deflation threats. The analysis of available data confirms both the concerns about the negative effects of negative interest rates on the banking sector, the recovery process of public finances, the possible rise of a price bubble on the financial markets and real estate markets, or on the possibility of excessive risk taking, and on the other hand draws attention to the direct dependence between negative impacts and the duration of monetary policy using negative interest rates.